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Are external FW800 enclosures fast enough for audio?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lifeisabeach" data-source="post: 831153" data-attributes="member: 38864"><p>I just did some more checking on data rates for FW800 vs SATA. Going with an external FW800 RAID stripe may not be your best bet. Here's the breakdown:</p><p></p><p>The maximum sustained data transfer rate for Firewire 800 is 100 MB/sec.</p><p>The maximum sustained data transfer rate when using the FW800 enclosure I pointed out earlier is 80 MB/sec. So adding a 3rd drive would be almost pointless since you are already nearly maxed out with 2.</p><p>The maximum sustained data transfer rate for SATA 300 is 300 MB/sec (this is the overall bus bandwidth, not what any one drive can sustain).</p><p>Looking at the specs for a new SATA 300 drive, and <a href="http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/serial-ata-hard-drives-seagate.htm" target="_blank">this one as an example</a> can do sustained data transfers of 120 MB/sec.</p><p></p><p>So basically, "if" your existing drives are SATA 300, then putting them in a RAID enclosure would result in your data transfer rate being cut from 120 MB/sec or so for a single drive to 80 MB/sec for 2 in a RAID stripe using Firewire 800. YUCK!</p><p></p><p>Now... that all said... going with the FW800 RAID enclosure is still going to be your fastest option if you are sticking to getting an iMac. Which leads us back to your question... "is it fast enough?" That depends on if your existing PowerMac G4 has been fast enough for you, and what data transfer rates you have been getting. I'd need to know your drive model to look up that sort of thing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lifeisabeach, post: 831153, member: 38864"] I just did some more checking on data rates for FW800 vs SATA. Going with an external FW800 RAID stripe may not be your best bet. Here's the breakdown: The maximum sustained data transfer rate for Firewire 800 is 100 MB/sec. The maximum sustained data transfer rate when using the FW800 enclosure I pointed out earlier is 80 MB/sec. So adding a 3rd drive would be almost pointless since you are already nearly maxed out with 2. The maximum sustained data transfer rate for SATA 300 is 300 MB/sec (this is the overall bus bandwidth, not what any one drive can sustain). Looking at the specs for a new SATA 300 drive, and [URL="http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/serial-ata-hard-drives-seagate.htm"]this one as an example[/URL] can do sustained data transfers of 120 MB/sec. So basically, "if" your existing drives are SATA 300, then putting them in a RAID enclosure would result in your data transfer rate being cut from 120 MB/sec or so for a single drive to 80 MB/sec for 2 in a RAID stripe using Firewire 800. YUCK! Now... that all said... going with the FW800 RAID enclosure is still going to be your fastest option if you are sticking to getting an iMac. Which leads us back to your question... "is it fast enough?" That depends on if your existing PowerMac G4 has been fast enough for you, and what data transfer rates you have been getting. I'd need to know your drive model to look up that sort of thing. [/QUOTE]
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